If you're gonna steal $200,000 worth of Muenster cheese to sell on the black market, you may as well steal it from Wisconsin.
That's exactly what police in New Jersey say this man, Veniamin Konstantinovich Balika of Illinois, was trying to do until he got busted on the New Jersey Turnpike. How did he pull it off? According to Wisconsin's Channel 3000 News, Balika pulled into the K&K Cheese distributor in Canton and provided fake documentation to get 42,000 pounds of cheese loaded onto his truck. From the story:
"This is the first time this has ever happened to us," said Kevin Everhart, the general manager of K & K, which operates under the Old Country Cheese Factory label. "The trucking company we contract with will take care of the money we lost, but it's still a shame. Still sad that this happened."
His plan was to sell the cheese on the East Coast black market, according to the story. Seriously. It turns out there's a black market for just about everything, including cheese.
The story notes that the distributor doesn't want their cheese back, so if it is found to be untampered with it will be donated to charity instead.
I have to wonder one thing: When the cops took this guy's mugshot, did they tell him "Hey pal... say cheese"?
Because I totally would have done that. You know, if I were a cop.